Two Cousins of Azov
By: Andrea Bennett / Narrated By: Saul Reichlin
Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
Chosen cuz of Saul Reichlin, loved cuz of Andrea Bennett’s creation
Saul Reichlin rocks! Period. ‘Nuff said.
He had me from the first words of The Dog, the Wolf and God, and boy did he have me at the opening of this, Two Cousins of Azov!
Chosen by me for our little audiobook club because we’d been doing some heavy-duty listening, it quite simply seemed like a bit of a light treat (And did I mention… Saul Reichlin rocks?!?). We were just up for a good story.
And a grand story is what we got.
The story opens with Gor and strange goings on—tapping on a window four flights up, a dead rabbit turning up on his doorstep while he’s trying to rehearse a magic act, an egg, his breakfast, disappearing. Is something ominous occurring, or is he just getting old?
Meanwhile, aged Tolya wakes up in a sanitorium, having not an inkling of what brought him there, having no memories of his arrival. The drop dead gorgeous Vlad comes in, wanting Tolya’s memories, wanting to make him a project, a work to be written about for a medical paper to be turned in to teachers and supervisors. “How did you come to be here?” he asks. “What can you remember?”
Quite a lot, it turns out. Tolya regales an increasingly impatient Vlad (Who just wants to write his danged paper and get back to his ultra-sexy girlfriend, Polly) with stories of his youth in Siberia during the Soviet era. He has fanciful tales of a moth boy, of his grandmother, of fire, all of which he tells Vlad in exchange for some sweet treats, perhaps?
We get to know the stressed-out Gor and his developing relationship with his magician’s assistant Sveta and her daughter, the precocious and outspoken Albina. We get to know Vlad and his unfeeling girlfriend Polly. We get to know Polly’s mother-figure and her friend, Vlad’s landlady. And we most of all get to know the kind and enchanting Tolya with his tales of an idyllic boyhood which ends in supreme tragedy.
This is the story of struggling to do the right thing, struggling to be present in one’s life, struggling to accept relationships as they come in life. And it’s a story with mysteries and duplicity. Ominous, yes, but in the hands of such well-written characters, compelling, engaging, and delightful.
Tap tap tap
You’ll hear that a lot throughout the book, and it most certainly beckons, it most certainly guides one through a lovely story of friendship and family when all hope for warmth had been lost.
And may I say it?
Saul Reichlin rocks!!!
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